Cook: It's time for LaMarr Woodley to focus on football

[zulater]

The team needs him to pick up his game and become a dominant player again opposite Harrison.
"He was awful," one teammate said of Woodley's performance last season.
"He tells us he works out, but we didn't see it. He wasn't in shape. That has to be a reason why he was always hurt."
Colbert defended Woodley when asked about that assessment, saying Woodley always has carried a lot of weight. That might be true, but Woodley was a much different player, a much worse player. He looked heavy and slow. He had just four sacks after getting nine in the first half of the 2011 season before a serious hamstring injury ruined that season for him.
Injuries have become an issue with Woodley. Before his hamstring injury against the New England Patriots in the eighth game of 2011, he had played in 58 consecutive games, including 46 consecutive starts. But he missed six of the final nine games in 2011 and was ineffective in the three he played, including the playoff loss to the Denver Broncos. No sacks. He missed one game last season with another hamstring problem and two more games because of an ankle injury.
"He tells us he works out, but we didn't see it ... "


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/ron-cook/cook-its-time-for-lamarr-woodley-to-focus-on-football-675736/#ixzz2LAoEcRIC


Wow! Talk about getting slammed by your teammates!

[Shoes]

He has to get slammed by someone!! Colbert is in denial as are some of the coaches. The reality is they aren't as good at picking players in the draft as everyone thought they were.....me included!

Here is some BS out of Woodley's own mouth from August 5, 2011.

"People are going to expect a lot out of you because of the money you signed for, but you should expect a lot of yourself anyway, regardless of the money you sign for," he said. "I'm a competitive person, and if I didn't sign that contract I'd still go out and give my all. Last year, I didn't have a (long-term) contract but I still went out and gave my all because that's the kind of person I am."

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/6835818/lamarr-woodley-pittsburgh-steelers-lands-6-year-615m-deal

[GBMelBlount]

The collective team laziness, apathy and lack of preparedness is on Tomlin.

[43Hitman]

I have no problem with players calling out other players for underachieving. However, I would like for them to at least put their name to it. These anonymous quotes are cowardice.

[steelerdude15]

The collective team laziness, apathy and lack of preparedness is on Tomlin.

I'd beg to differ. You have players on each and every team who are in better shape than their teammates. A lot of that has to deal with the players themselves and how they prepare in the offseason. On that note, Woodley needs to lose weight and that will help his game.

[NCSteeler]

The collective team laziness, apathy and lack of preparedness is on Tomlin.

^^^^This

[X-Terminator]

The collective team laziness, apathy and lack of preparedness is on Tomlin.

Yeah, if I'm Tomlin, I tell all the players that if you are not in shape in time for training camp, then don't bother showing up. He has not been as tough on the players as he needs to be, and it showed in their play. He needs to rediscover that fire and toughness he had his first 2 years at HC, when players like Alan Faneca were whining because he worked them too hard.

[SteelerFanInStl]

Someone needs to kick Woodley in the ass. He's getting paid way too much money for how he's performing.

[GBMelBlount]

Yeah, if I'm Tomlin, I tell all the players that if you are not in shape in time for training camp, then don't bother showing up. He has not been as tough on the players as he needs to be, and it showed in their play. He needs to rediscover that fire and toughness he had his first 2 years at HC, when players like Alan Faneca were whining because he worked them too hard.

I completely agree.

[Pristas]

The collective team laziness, apathy and lack of preparedness is on Tomlin.


Quoted for truth. Could Woodley be a possible cut? How much cap space would they save? I know he has a huge contract... how much of it is guaranteed?

[dislocatedday]

The problem is that I believe he still has 4 years left on the deal. Even though he receives the signing bonus up front, for cap purposes it is split over the life of the contract. I don't remember what his signing bonus was but let's say it was $18 million to make it easy. With 4 years left, that is still $12 million that counts against the cap ($3 mil each year). If they cut him now, I believe the reamining $12 million rolls up and counts against the cap this year. I could be wrong in that assumption, and it may still be spread out over the next 4 years.....but in this example, that would be $3 mill in dead money for each of the next 4 seasons. Of course, if his base is $7 mil per season they would still save that.

[zulater]

I don't think the thought should be to get rid of Woodley . I think the thought should be how to get back a motivated, fit, and healthy Woodley. Let's not forget prior to him pulling his hammy against the Patriots in 2011 he was in the discussion for mid season DPOY.

[Count Steeler]

I don't know about all the cap numbers, but if Woodley doesn't show up in shape, bench him. At least Worilds can play on that side of the defense and he can do an adequate job. Tomlin has to do a better job of disciplining this team.

[86WARD]

He has been downright terrible.

[dislocatedday]

I had always thought that Woodley would grow to become a "leader" on the defense after the long time stalwarts leave (Farrior, A Smith, Hampton, etc.). If the rest of the team honestly feels that he is dogging it and not putting in the effort to get and stay in shape, then there is no hope of him becoming a leader for the D. I don't know which players will step into that role, but the only yong guy that currently looks like he could possibly be a "leader of men" is Timmons, and I don't know if he has that type of personality.

[Count Steeler]

As a side note, I think the talk from the players is showing a bigger problem in our locker room. Firstly, I don't know if Cook is paraphrasing or did the players really say what he has quoted. You know ala Goodell?

IF the players are speaking like this, then Tomlin has to get control of the locker room and soon. You can diss as much as you want face to face, but to do it through the media is unacceptable.

[st33lersguy]

As a side note, I think the talk from the players is showing a bigger problem in our locker room. Firstly, I don't know if Cook is paraphrasing or did the players really say what he has quoted. You know ala Goodell?

IF the players are speaking like this, then Tomlin has to get control of the locker room and soon. You can diss as much as you want face to face, but to do it through the media is unacceptable.

Agreed. Dissing your own teammates through the media is bush league and not the Steeler way, and I think the soft no-punishment atmosphere that Tomlin has allowed is part of the problem

[86WARD]

ANother point in favor of the Tomlin Haters.

[zulater]

Instead of blaming the coach and unnamed sources, how about we look at the guy cashing the big check who can't be bothered to get in adequete playing shape?

If outing him to the press is what it takes to shame him into doing what he's supposed to do, I'm not going to let it bother me.

As far as the coaches go, don't leave out LeBeau when you dish out your blame pie, if that's what you're into.

Personally prior to this season Woodley had no history of lack of conditioning. So I'm not going to blame Tomlin and staff too much for this past year. But if it carries into next season and Woodley isn't properly dealt with then I'm going to start to wonder.

[GBMelBlount]

Anonymously or not, I am glad someone called him out and I hope the public embarrassment continues.

NOTHING pisses me off more than seeing someone like Woodley piss away their potential at the of the expense of the team.

[steelreserve]

Quoted for truth. Could Woodley be a possible cut? How much cap space would they save? I know he has a huge contract... how much of it is guaranteed?

I'm pretty sure it costs us far more cap space this season to cut him than to keep him, since he's not far into the contract and they restructured him last season to make basically all of last year's $10M base salary guaranteed. I know he costs us $13.2M if we keep him and do nothing, most likely $20M or more if we cut him. Those are both horrible, horrible numbers and we're basically stuck with him for the duration; maybe we can save a million or two in his last year.

[Count Steeler]

Anonymously or not, I am glad someone called him out and I hope the public embarrassment continues.

NOTHING pisses me off more than seeing someone like Woodley piss away their potential at the of the expense of the team.

Sorry, but that does not build chemistry. If some guys have a big mouth to the press and they aren't man enough to say it to his face, that is unacceptable. I'd rather have this done behind team doors, by all of his teammates, then to have 1 or 2 "unnamed sources". Just doesn't build the atmosphere you want on a winner.

[GBMelBlount]

Sorry, but that does not build chemistry. If some guys have a big mouth to the press and they aren't man enough to say it to his face, that is unacceptable. I'd rather have this done behind team doors, by all of his teammates, then to have 1 or 2 "unnamed sources". Just doesn't build the atmosphere you want on a winner.

I understand your point Count but I would argue Woodley sitting on his ass while his teammates suffer builds far more resentment as compared to someone anonymously calling him out.

If it is the truth and everyone knows it then are the people who don't say anything any better?

Bottom line is the brass needs to directly confront him if they haven't already and his teammates should too imo.

[Count Steeler]

I understand your point Count but I would argue Woodley sitting on his ass while his teammates suffer builds far more resentment as compared to someone anonymously calling him out.

If it is the truth and everyone knows it then are the people who don't say anything any better?

Bottom line is the brass needs to directly confront him if they haven't already and his teammates should too imo.

This is the approach I would hope they would follow. If no one got in his face last year (coaches especially), then we have some deeper problems on this team. That being said, we don't really know if he was 100% healthy either.

Just some odd decisions coming out of our team and it has me concerned.

[Count Steeler]

http://www.steelersuniverse.com/forums/showthread.php/16653-Ryan-Clark-Woodley-issue-shows-Steelers-fracture

Read Ryan Clark's take on this situation.


"My biggest problem with that is not LaMarr, or is not someone's feelings about LaMarr," Clark said. "My problem is now it's public. We were talking about the Ravens earlier, we were talking about the brotherhood, we were talking about the family that they were. We all have arguments with our brothers, sisters, cousins, but that stays in-house. What you talk about then stays there and it doesn't get out to the public. So that is the problem. ...

"That shows that this team that is normally close, you had the Joey Porters, the Alan Fanecas, just down the line, leader after leader, this team was close-knit. It shows there is a fracture in that. I think that is the most disappointing thing about that coming out."

[steelreserve]

I don't know about the whole anonymous teammate thing. On the one hand, yeah, normally it's kind of a low blow. On the hand, you have to remember this team is unusually topheavy with big dogs who are either 10-year veterans or make a huge amount of money and the team has made it clear they're invested in for the long term.

So if someone like, say ... Baron Batch or Cam Heyward saw something wrong and got on one of those guys' cases, they might just get a who-the-fuck-are-you. Maybe they already tried and that's what happened. Not that that's a good sign either, just saying whoever it was may have had their reasons for handling it that way.

That or it was just Wallace taking one last chance to stir up some shit before he goes to New England.

[BigNastyDefense]

First, I hate when our players air their dirty laundry in public. You wanna call out a teammate? That's fine with me. But do it face-to-face or over the phone. Don't go running to the damn media.

Second, if you are going to go to the media, put your name behind what you're saying! Don't hide behind "anonymous." Be a man, let it be known that it was you!

Third, players being in shape is on Tomlin AND the players. Tomlin has to make sure his players know that he expects them to be in shape coming into camp...hell minicamps at that. And when they don't, he needs to be a hard ass about it. However, he can't make the players do anything outside of minicamps, OTA's, training camp, and the regular season. That has to be up to the players. Woodley is never going to look like Clay Matthews. He's going to carry extra weight, and it's worked for him before. But last year he was out of what his normal in shape is. He needs to get back to that, and that's up to him.

[Heinz Hitman]

Woodley would be able to work out a lot more if he wasn't on Facebook every 5 minutes. He posts more than a 13-year-old girl.

[GBMelBlount]

So if someone like, say ... Baron Batch or Cam Heyward saw something wrong and got on one of those guys' cases, they might just get a who-the-fuck-are-you. Maybe they already tried and that's what happened. Not that that's a good sign either, just saying whoever it was may have had their reasons for handling it that way.



Exactly. It could be someone who approached him already and Woodley rolled his eyes and said "pffffft, when YOU'RE making 10 million a year I will care about what you think".

There is a ton of stuff that goes on that we never know about.

Just sayin...